It's 2026 And I Just Watched Denzel Washington's Man On Fire For The First Time – These Are My Honest Thoughts

It's starting to become a running joke here at /Film that I haven't seen any movies. Until 2025, I hadn't seen "Jurassic Park," and until 2026, I hadn't seen the 1999 version of "The Mummy." I also just watched Tony Scott and Denzel Washington's "Man on Fire" for the first time, and guess what? It's a cool, super-stylish, and deeply gruesome movie that totally won me over by the time the credits rolled.

Because Netflix now has its own small-screen version of "Man on Fire" — with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Washington's role of John Creasy alongside other stars like Alice Braga and Bobby Cannavale — my editors thought it would be fun for me to watch the 2004 version for the first time. It was a lot of fun to curl up on a rainy Saturday and watch Washington's tough yet big-hearted Creasy take down a whole lot of bad people just to protect his new best friend Lupita "Pita" Ramos, a precocious kidnapped child played by Dakota Fanning. (I know we all know this, but it's simply crazy to me that Fanning has been this talented for this long.)

Thanks to Scott's stylized vision, phenomenal central performances from Washington and Fanning, and a characteristically tight script from Brian Helgeland (who adapted it from a 1980 novel written by A. J. Quinnell), "Man on Fire" is a fun thrill ride that absolutely zooms through its 146 minute run-time. If you haven't seen "Man on Fire," you should check it out. If you've watched "Man on Fire" a whole bunch of times and can't believe I only just watched it for the first time ever, I'm sorry, and I get it now. So what makes "Man on Fire" stand out amidst a sea of revenge-centered or kidnap-focused action thrillers?

When we first meet Denzel Washington's Marine and CIA veteran John Creasy, he's in a bad way; not only does he drink too much, but he doesn't even really see the point of being alive. When he visits an old pal in Mexico City — Christopher Walken's Paul Rayburn — Creasy gets wind of a potential job and ultimately agrees to be the bodyguard for Lupita "Pita" Ramos, the only daughter of wealthy automaker Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony) and his American wife Lisa (Radha Mitchell).

At first, Creasy doesn't want to encourage any interpersonal relationship with Pita; she's not his friend, as he tells her, but his job. Ultimately, though, Pita's inimitable spirit wears him down — and after he takes an interest in her training as a swimmer, the two become extremely close, while Lisa looks on fondly. Everything changes one day, though, while Pita attends a piano lesson (one Samuel insisted she attend in the first place) and is kidnapped during a shoot-out that leaves Creasy grievously injured.

Creasy's love for Pita is palpable, and watching him mow down a series of enemies who know something about her abduction is both gross and incredibly satisfying (his interrogation of the getaway driver is really something). It's because you really believe that Creasy adores this spunky little girl, though, that "Man on Fire" really sings; a lesser movie would present us with a shallower relationship between the two and ask us to believe it. Part of that is the movie's pacing, and Tony Scott's stylistic touches really bring this movie to a new level.

Yes, "Man on Fire" is a lengthy movie — its runtime is just under two and a half hours — but truthfully, you need every minute of this film in order for it to work. That's because Tony Scott wisely invests quite a lot of screentime on the relationship between Creasy and Pita, and the latter's friendship being the impetus for Creasy to improve his life. As he drinks less and tries to live a better life overall, Creasy and Pita grow closer — to the point where a nun from her school tells him, during a swim meet that she wins, that Creasy is basically Pita's father. Without so much time devoted to the bond between Creasy and Pita, we wouldn't really care about his revenge mission; as it stands, it's extra exciting to watch Creasy do whatever it takes to get Pita back, especially when he realizes that Pita's dad Samuel had a hand in his own child's abduction.

Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning have a natural chemistry together — which we also saw on display in "Equalizer 3" — but Tony Scott's undeniable style also really makes "Man on Fire" sing. I know this sounds silly, but I loved the simple way the subtitles flowed across the screen in time with the dialogue, and even touches like quick cuts and slo-mo felt cool instead of gimmicky. "Man on Fire" might have a weirdly low Rotten Tomatoes score, but I loved it ... and you can rent or buy it on VOD or stream it (with ads) on Tubi if you want to experience it right now.